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Common spring home repairs homeowners can DIY, what they should hire the experts for | Home Smart

Many household problems can be addressed with easy, DIY solutions that a quick trip to your local hardware store can fix.

WILLOW STREET, Pa. — Springtime often brings a renewed energy for tasks such as cleaning, reorganizing, and more. This is also the perfect time of the year for some common home spring repairs. 

However, some home repairs are easier for people to DIY themselves versus others.

Dave Gish is a Senior Sales Associate at GR Mitchell. He's been working in home improvement his entire career. 

Gish tells FOX43 one of the most common home repairs people come to the store for this time of year is window screen repair. Thankfully, Gish says this is an easy DIY fix.

“If your screen’s torn really bad, then you’re gonna have to replace all the screen. If it’s not, just has a small hole, then just go with a small patch. Easy," he says. "It’s self sticking, you just put it on.”

Another easy DIY to tackle this time of year, cleaning your dryer vents.

“There’s different methods. We have a brush that hooks up to a drill. We have one up here with extensions. Mine at home is almost 25 feet. And the longer you have, the better chance you have of getting clogged so it’s even more important," says Gish.

If you’re feeling like a full home refresh is needed, this is the perfect time of the year to paint. It's one of the easiest ways to freshen up your home and a relatively inexpensive thing to do. It can also help add value to your home.

Spring is also a great time to do it because you can open up the windows to help speed up the drying process and vent any fumes. 

One final DIY project that homeowners should be doing every month, replacing your air filters.

“It seems like a lot of times, people will have a tendency to change it when they are turning their air conditioner on and they have a tendency to turn it on when the heat, or the furnace comes on," Gish tells FOX43. "It’s something that if you have the regular one inch it should be done every month and it’s very very important because it does control the quality of the air going through your house. If you have pets, it’s even more important to keep an eye on making sure you change it every month.”

Aside from the personal health benefits, changing these filters will help keep your equipment running at top efficiency.

While a lot of these spring projects homeowners can tackle themselves, Gish says there are a few things you should leave up to the experts.

“The biggest thing would be electrical. I have people coming in sometimes that I will actually tell them to… you need to hire an electrician because you shouldn’t be tackling electric on your own," he says.

Other big home remodels, such as a kitchen flip, should also be done with the help of some professionals.

If you have questions for any of these projects, Gish says the internet is a great place to find DIY help. You can find many videos and tutorials on Google, YouTube, and even TikTok.

Of course, you can always find a wealth of knowledge at your local hardware store as well.

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